Chapter 45- Run or Fight or Both

“Did you find something out on the mountain?” Liren and Tian sat on the edge of the pond, still entranced by the butterflies. Burning Heaven was giddily exploring her newfound consciousness and abilities, and they had silently agreed it was best not to disturb her. Liren was eyeing the toad with both curiosity and skepticism. The butterflies were landing on it, and the toad seemed determined to ignore them.

“You bet! It’s a lucky toad. Look, it does a magic trick!” Tian flicked a brass cash in a flat arc that would pass just in front of the toad. The toad flicked out its tongue, snagged the coin, and promptly swallowed it.

“It ate the coin? Do you-”

“It’s fine, it eats coins. It’s tough enough to stop a blow from a level nine, so coins are nothing. Apparently.”

“And… is that the trick?” Liren probed, her face twitching. Tian turned and looked at her seriously.

“What could be luckier than that?”

Liren started rubbing the spot between her eyebrows. “Right. Yes. You went for gems and found a money eating toad. This is a normal thing that happens to normal people.”

Tian grinned. “Really, though, it’s a magic toad and it’s lucky. Burning Heaven awakened her intelligence with no problems, and she broke through as soon as she watched you arrive. I discovered it likes to eat money and have Heavenly realm tea splashed on it, so it’s not too difficult to keep as a pet. Besides, doesn’t it look good on its rocks in the middle of the pond?”

“Is that really important? No, more to the point, can it even be called lucky if it eats money? Isn’t that the definition of bad luck?”

They got into some very important bickering, which led to Tian giving Liren the whole story, culminating in him and the Toad debating the dao. When the Toad lost under the weight of Tian’s righteousness and logic, it flew into a rage and opted to fight.

Tian and the toad fought a hundred rounds, the toad defending with his Invincible Bronze Toadskin Technique, while Tian was untouchable and fierce with the yin-yang combination of Moon Crossing the Lake and Dragon Suppressing Palms. Eventually, however, Tian discovered the Toad’s weakness for currency when he deployed his legendary coin-tossing technique. In the end, the toad threw himself at his feet and begged to be his pond protecting guardian beast.

Liren nodded thoughtfully, then looked over at Burning Heaven. “Is even one word of that true?”

“Well, Brother did throw some coins for the toad after he seemed to lose an argument with it. I didn’t hear the toad say anything, but I was pretty focused on eating a big snake.”

Tian gasped at the sudden betrayal. Liren just nodded understandingly. “Yes, that sounds more like it. Well, you made it back safely, even if you were bullied by amphibians. And you got the rock too, I assume.”

“It’s with the Wangs, getting stabbed. Burning Heaven, how could you?”

“It’s no disgrace losing to this toad. He is a tough toad.” Burning Heaven nodded her head, which was pretty dramatic looking with her red face and the long beak.

Liren looked heavenward. “It’s hard, being the sensible one.”

“You will learn.” Tian smiled.

“Haaah. What happened to that honest child I knew?” Liren looked tragic.

“Must have fallen in with bad company, I suppose.” Tian sighed with regret. Quiet settled in around them. Not awkward, each just content in their own thoughts.

“Liren?”

“Yeah?”

“You once said you would go with me if I wanted to leave the sect.”

“Yeah.”

“Still true?”

“Yeah.”

Silence settled in again. Tian shifted awkwardly. “Did you… happen to hear about what happened at the big meeting in the Hall of Harmony?”

“No, or not really. Martial Uncle Stormrider said something about “Go get your man, he’s burning down the Ancestral Hall and pissing on the ashes,” but I assumed he was joking.”

Tian nodded. “I would never.”

Silence gathered again. “Because you don’t know where the Ancestral Hall is.”

“Because I don’t know where it is, yes, and I assume it’s pretty big. Even if I drank a lot of water, I just don’t think it’s possible, you know? Here is what happened.”

Tian ran through the whole story, leaving nothing out including his final conversation with Mao.

“I also told you that I would stay if you asked me to. And… I don’t know what the right answer is anymore. One part of me thinks about all those lectures we got about the need to not associate with fools, to meditate quietly in solitude, the virtues of secluding ourselves from the world.”

Tian rubbed his eyes. His face ached. “And another part of me thinks this is the exact same bullshit logic that Heartmend used. It’s not my problem. Just walk on and don’t let it disturb my heart. Be indifferent to all that suffering, and ignore all the goodness.”

Liren looked at him, searching his face. Tian didn’t know what she was looking for. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for in hers.

“You are a lot of things, Zihao, but you aren’t indifferent to pain. Just the opposite, actually.”

“Yeah.”

She smiled a little. “Did your heart hurt when you thought about running?”

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Tian blinked. “Yes, actually. But isn’t that normal when you are sad?”

“Sure, but I think there is another reason. Your dao path. You don’t know what it is, yet, but you know what it isn’t. It’s not a path that would ever let you walk away from your brothers while they suffered. You fight against the pain. So your heart hurt.”

Tian bowed his head. His face really ached. It was strange. Nothing had hit him, so why did his face ache so much?

“I don’t want to manage the sect. I don’t want to be a damned Elder. I just want people to stop being stupid all the damn time and stop making the same stupid mistakes over and over again.”